How to start a home staging business.
In the fast-paced real estate market, homeowners are looking for any edge they can find to make their homes stand out from the competition. One way to do so is by staging your spaces and making them as beautiful and welcoming as possible.
Home staging has been proven to increase a home’s sale price by an average of $8,000-$10,000 and it also helps motivate buyers to purchase more quickly than they would otherwise.
How does it work? Professional stagers will come into your space with professional tools such as furniture, artwork, window treatments and more to create a warm environment that will help sell your house faster than you could on your own!
What Exactly Does a Home Stager Do?
Cluttered or worn-out-looking homes take longer to sell and frequently fail to obtain a good price as a consequence. A home stager’s job is to make a house more appealing to potential buyers and to improve the likelihood of it selling quickly and for the highest possible price. Home stagers are experts at the art of redecorating, staging your home with furniture and accessories to make it look as beautiful as possible.
They don’t do this for free, they charge a fee for their services. How much it costs to hire one depends on the size of your home and how many rooms they need to stage, but you can expect to pay anywhere from $500-$1500 per room.
Although hiring an expert might seem like overkill when trying to sell your house, staging has been shown in studies conducted by the National Association of Realtors to increase the sale price by an average of $8000-$10000.
As for how much time it takes, professional home stagers are used to working quickly and efficiently so that your house is ready within only a few days.
Getting Started with Your Home Staging Business
Find out what properties sell fast and what don’t in your local real estate market. What are potential homebuyers searching for while shopping for a house?
Become acquainted with real estate brokers who may serve as a valuable resource for current market circumstances, as well as a potential client source.
Compile a list of the properties you’ve staged thus far. To begin, focus on your own house. The instructions below detail all of this and more.
Do some research about your Local Housing Market
To be successful in business, you must first understand the wants and requirements of your target market. Living in a luxurious area means you have to be willing to spend a lot of money on luxury goods. If you live in a more rural area, then you have to be willing to spend less money on high-end items. Understanding this is key for selling your products and services effectively.
Do some research about the Housing Market where you want to start a business. It’s also a good idea to be familiar with the current architectural and interior design trends in the region so you can incorporate them into your ideas.
Make sure you can answer these questions:
- How long do you want to stay in this area?
- How much money are the people spending on average for a home and how does that compare to other areas around the country?
- How many homes were listed last year and sold during those times?
- How fast are properties selling there compared to other cities or towns within your state/province?
Target a Specific Market Audience
This is one of the most important things to consider when starting your home staging business. How do you want to narrow down your target market? Do you plan on specializing in a certain type of real estate agent or housing situation, like short sales or foreclosures? Or are you going for general appeal with all types of homes and homeowners?
You might, for example, form a network of local flippers with whom you collaborate on property investments. However, if you want to run a full-scale operation, consider specializing in large estates and luxury homes. This way, you may target a select audience who will be ready to pay a premium for your services.
Create a Pricing Structure
Pricing may be a challenging but necessary stage in your business development process. You should take into account your financial investments, the amount of time each work is willing to take, and any other variables that may prove problematic in the long run.
If you don’t know how to do this, you can start by picking the number of rooms to stage and determine the cost for each room. How many hours you’ll need depends on how much furniture needs to be moved, if any at all. For example, say that you have six rooms in your home that are being staged. You want to price by the hour because this is an easy way to determine the cost.
Formulate Client Contracts
Any kind of employment arrangement needs a solid contract as the foundation. Use pre-made templates or speak with a lawyer to come up with language that is suited for your unique circumstance. However, there are some common elements to include in a contract.
For example: Set out the schedule of fees and payment schedules, so there is no confusion about who owes what at any given time. This also allows you to have a home staging consultation before having an obligation for anything more expensive than that initial meeting fee.
Invest in Liability Insurance
If you accidentally break or damage anything in a client’s house, you should obtain liability insurance to cover your losses. A legal battle or costly house repairs are the last things you want to have to deal with. So, make sure you are protected.
You might think you don’t need liability insurance because the worst that can happen is a dissatisfied customer. However, this could still lead to legal troubles and possible lawsuits if someone gets injured while working in your client’s house. So, protect yourself from any potential future problems by getting a policy before starting your business.
Also, talk with fellow real estate professionals about their experiences regarding home staging liability insurance.
Connect with Area Realtors
Start by offering advice to homeowners who are planning on selling their homes themselves. Connect with local realtors so they can recommend your services when clients ask about staging, or if a house requires some help before it goes up for sale.
These agents are just as eager to sell their homes fast and for a high price. To connect with them and give your contact information so they may recommend you to sellers when the time comes.
Find Discount Home Decor Supplier Nears
Before selling, some homeowners thoroughly clean and tidy, while others could stand to add a few finishing touches. In any case, you’ll most likely need to bring in some more décor pieces to fill in the gaps and make it more appealing to interested buyers. So, where do you find cheap home decor?
When you’re just starting, sometimes the best place is to check with friends and family. You might have a friend or relative that’s upgrading their furniture or they are getting rid of some stuff after moving into a smaller place. Either way, these items may be perfect for your staging job!
Moreover, you can look for cheap furniture and home décor stores. Keep in mind that you are not looking for high-end stuff here, but rather something that will give off the right vibe without breaking your budget.
Finally, don’t forget to look on social media sites like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist! You can find some amazing bargains at these places if you know the right terms to search with.
Create a Website
Just like every other business, having an internet presence is essential. But it’s extremely important in a visually appealing and rapidly growing industry like home staging. How you display your website is going to be a major factor in how quickly it will get noticed. How
How often do you see a business with an outdated looking website? Not very often, right? That’s because they understand that websites need to look up-to-date and professional. If yours looks old or amateurish then potential clients may not trust what you have to offer.
Brand Your Business Carefully
For house stagers, design is an important component. As a result, you must ensure that your branding, as well as the design of your website and marketing materials, are consistent with your style and seem professional.
When you begin working with clients, your brand will be what they think of when considering hiring a home staging company.
Create a Portfolio of Homes You’ve Staged
Every professional home stager should have a portfolio of homes they’ve staged. Not only does this allow you to show potential clients the work that you can do, but it also allows them to see your style and how well you know what works for an upscale design.
How best do you create one? First, look at every real estate website you can find. You’ll want to choose homes that are similar in price, size and level of decorating to the home you would like the stage for potential clients.
Do Some Local Advertising
To get started, you also need to build your base of clients. How do you do that? One sure way I can tell you is by doing some local advertising; put flyers on supermarket tables and business cards at the realtor office in town.
Be sure to add a link to your website address so they can check out pictures of staging jobs or read testimonials.
And if you don’t know how to go about this at all, it is advisable to hire a professional brand strategist and designer.
Collect Testimonial Statements
Find some testimonials from people who have hired you. How much money did they save? How easy was the process for them? How will using your services benefit their home sale or purchase? For example, maybe one client said that “My condo sold in just three days after an offer came into place! I saved $20!”
After you’ve gathered customer testimonials, be sure to publish them on your website and in other marketing materials.
Pros of a Home Staging Business
There are many advantages to establishing a home staging business if you have an eye for interior design. The following are some pros of starting a home staging business.
1. You can set your schedule.
2. Some stagers work part-time for extra money.
3. Staging is a relatively new job that doesn’t require much education and training.
4. There’s always new business because of the continued influx of new homebuyers.
5. You get to meet people all day long and help them with their biggest investment (their house).
Cons of a Home Staging Business
Home staging, like any other business endeavour, has certain drawbacks, including:
1. Time to invest in learning the home staging process and marketing your business
2. How much you can expect to earn for doing this work yourself instead of being paid by realtors or homeowners
3. Landing your first client to develop a portfolio with.
4. Many of your customers will only be able to meet with you on weekends and/or nights, therefore you may need to work those hours.
In Conclusion
Starting a home staging business, like any other business, comes with its own set of obstacles. You should be prepared and be fully aware of what you’re getting yourself into.
In the same way that other businesses have seasonality, so too does this one, and it’s important to learn about it in advance. Because most individuals sell their houses in the spring and summer, you’ll need to budget for income changes.
Moreover, consult successful business owners, even if not in this line, for advice on how to establish your business, make sure you look up for some helpful resources on the internet. Before you begin, reach out to realtors, understand what they are looking for and how they patronize home stagers.
